It's dragon time

Yesterday was NY it's the Year of the Dragon, which is a pretty important one around here as I am surrounded by dragons - hubby, son and my littlest bro! Mister H is the luckiest of all being a golden dragon as he likes to remind his dad (wood dragon) and uncle (fire dragon) who are much more common forms!

It actually felt a bit funny not having hubby here for the day (he's in India again) as you may realise I'm not the Chinese one in the mix here! But I did remember not to wash my hair and hence have not washed away any luck. Wish I'd know more things to do and not what to do, just found this list. Well I definitely didn't get the broom out, so more good luck for me. But I should have worn red and tried not to swear.

Something I did start yesterday, which I am SOOOO excited about is a new fibre art piece. I will share soon. Speaking of which I need to get back to it, as I am sans kids (they had a sleepover!) so must not waste time. Had another glorious sunrise here this morning - gosh I love mornings! Photos are from our front verandah looking towards the gate. Behind the hedge is a road (thankfully not a busy one), we are on top of a hill, so feel very lucky and grateful to be living here surrounded by such beauty.

It's also been a year (well a Chinese year) since I started blogging all the way back here!

time is flying

It's almost been a month since my last post - a very naughty and slack blogger here! But it's summer and the kids are off school, and well I haven't actually done much. There have been lots of BBQs and catching up with friends and family, hubby had three whole weeks off work (amazing!) so we had a lot of chores to get done around the house and garden. I haven't taken all that many photos when I look back over the month. No more excuses I have to get back on the horse, and start the ball rolling. So without anymore metaphors here goes for my first post for 2012!

 We've had lots of spectacular sunsets. The sunrises are still great too, just think I'm getting a bit more blasé about them and not taking any photos!

 On New Year's Eve the sunset was gorgeous, turned the hills pink, which was the first time I'd seen that here. The twinkling lights of Nelson city are just visible.

 There have been lots of trips to the beach. My favourite time is in the evening when it is cooler and the light is softer.

It hasn't all been sunshine and sunsets, we have had a few rainy days too!

 The kids have been having lots of fun playing with Mumbai our pet goat.

 We even managed to get away for a night, it's hard when Mumbai is still being fed a bottle of milk a day! Popped down to the West Coast to my brother's farm. The kids had fun flying kites with their cousins.

It was another lovely evening, with the sun setting over the Tasman Sea!

I'm not into making New Year resolutions, but maybe I need to try and take more photos so I have something to blog about!

getting into the spirit

I'm almost there ....... it's actually pretty hard here in the southern hemisphere to get into the spirit. I've only had one christmas in the north, and it definitely "felt" like it!! As I don't venture too near shopping malls it's easy to live in a little bubble and think that there are still plenty of days until the big one! But with the hubby having finished work I now have no more excuses I have to venture out into the land of consumerism for the sake of tradition. Wish me luck!
Another reason for struggling with the feeling this year has been that our region suffered very badly from flooding and slips last week. Over 100 houses are inhabitable, many people won't be in their homes for christmas. A number of beaches are "closed" due to sewage contamination, hopefully they will be open by the weekend. It's such a kiwi tradition to go to the beach, we plan to. At least the strange weather we've been having seems to have moved on and its nice and sunny.

Wishing you (wherever you are) all the best for the festive season.

december

It's hard to realise that Christmas is so close, maybe it is denial. The kids finish school next week, and we have had the school and dance school end of year shows (phew!) Today it's time to get the tree, we are going for a large fir that is in the garden, and is going to get too big for where it is - so it will be a homegrown Christmas tree!

I have been making some hangings for the tree. All the ingredients I had on hand, except for the bead eyes, so a  trip to the op shops and 50 cents later I had eyes. I've since been looking for more 100% wool jerseys to felt, but it's the wrong time of the year the op shops only have summer clothing out. The big ones are the mummy (and daddy) chooks, they have a comb and tail feathers, and the chicks are a bit smaller. I really must try getting some better photos of them ......

We also have a new baby - Mumbai. Named in honour of the hubby's first trip to India. We decided against Pune (where he's working), so went for Mumbai instead. We got him last week when he was 6 days old. The next day we picked up hubby from the airport, and the kids were so excited about the surprise for Daddy at home. They put a blindfold on him and he had to guess what it was. At first he thought it was a rabbit (long ears), then a guinea pig (what!), then a deer (the feet), finally he guessed right - a goat. He's so much fun, H & L are enjoying his antics. It's actually quite hard to get a photo of him as he seems to always be on the move. He does enjoy eating hair, and kissing too!

 

What a handsome boy! We are now teaching him that he is a goat and has to live in the paddock when we are not home. It's amazing what small gaps he can squeeze through!

 I still haven't tired of taking photos of our view, after 2 months here. So here's a diptych from dusk a few nights ago. There's the almost full moon through the power wires.

trying out a diptych or two

I found this fantastic blog the other day of a Australian photographer who does these wonderful diptych, double image photographs. Her name is Louise Hawson and her blog is 52 Suburbs, and her mission was to take photographs of 52 suburbs of Sydney in her unique way, check it out.

Anyhow I thought I'd have a crack at my own diptych's. To make my life easier I used the stitch option on my photo editing program as don't have the patience to muck around in Photoshop. So the results are a bit hit and miss.

I like the juxtaposition of the images - some work better than others, I particularly like the last two which I took today at the Nelson Cathedral.

drawing on lorna

Things have been VERY slow on the art making front since moving. I actually have a proper studio here - so exciting! In a shed away from the house (and the computer!). However, it's actually not usable yet - it's full of stuff, some of it mine and some of it not! We've had the builders here taking out the roller door and replacing it with a ranch slider for more lovely light, and concreting the floor and filling in the open wall on the adjoining shed. This work is almost finished, just waiting for a new roller door, so I'll soon be able to take out all the junk from my studio and put it in the shed, and some visa versa!

This week at art group we are having a lino cutting workshop. So last week I thought I'd better start drawing some ideas down before sitting in the workshop with a blank mind. I used a Sharpie pen and drew on pages from an old copy of Lorna Doone that I scavenged out of the free bin. I think some of the older ladies at art group were a bit horrified at me drawing on a book! Someone else after looking at my drawings said they were great so why am I bothering to make lino prints! Watch this space and see if the prints look anything like the drawings....

The last one won't be made into a print, as it'll be too tricky for me!

all the fun of the show

We went to "The Show" on Sunday. The said Show is actually the Nelson A&P Show, A standing for Agricultural and P for Pastoral. It's been running for 117 years, which for NZ is a long time! When I was a kid we looked forward to The Show just as much as we did for Christmas! In those days it was on a Friday and Saturday, and Friday was the day all the farmers took their prize animals to be showed. My mum and dad showed sheep, two breeds - Romneys and Suffolks. We were always allowed the Friday off school. And would spend the day roaming around eating hot dogs and candy floss and looking for fizzy bottles which we could take and get 2 or 5 cent returns on (I can't remember which). Then the Saturday was the day the town came to the country and all the "townies" descended on the show. Now it runs from Saturday to Sunday and there are no where near as many farmers about, there are hardly any sheep in the sheep sheds either. There still are lots of animals to look at, to talk to and to stroke. It's a tradition that I'm trying to foster with my kids, except we feel slightly removed from the action not having any livestock (yet) ourselves. What hit me was as soon as we got out of the car how all the smells took me back 30 or more years, it was almost like dad was going to be in the sheep shed, and mum was setting up the picnic blanket under the trees with bacon and egg pie for lunch .................

there were wee piggies to laugh at  - miniature Kune kunes (definitely not for eating!)

calves to pat - Fresian

and Jersey - the two breeds of dairy cows in NZ

Suffolk rams to stroke

alpacas who wouldn't be stroked

day old chicks to hold so carefully

baby goats to long for (one was asleep on the other!)

There were lots of other things other than animals, but they were all that I took photos of. On the Friday the kids school had it's Pets Day, another institution of rural schools around here. They took their bunny rabbit. But the highlight for me was the wallaby that visited. NZ has wild wallaby populations in a couple of places (not round here though) and the wallaby is actually a pest animal and people hunt them! They also catch them and have exported them back to Australia where they came from. Anyhow one of the local vets raises orphans by hand and she brought Rosie along to visit the school.

She happily hopped around the classroom, looked out the window, let the kids stroke her, and when it all got too much hopped back into her sack/pouch. What a special treat.